The CPS Office of Inspector General lists anniversary trips to Las Vegas, South African safaris including camel rides, and stays at Hawaiian luxury resorts as problematic.
While staffers were seeing Hawaii, students were seeing their achievement suffer. Only 2-in-5 CPS students can read at grade level. About 1-in-4 perform math proficiently, Illinois Policy reports.
The costs exploded when federal pandemic funds became available and loosened district budgets, the report stated. Those funds were intended to help students catch up academically after the Chicago Teachers Union used pandemic fears to force schools to remain closed for 78 weeks.
Laurie Higgins of Breakthrough Ideas advises the public to investigate expenditures.
“Community members need to check in with their school board, file a Freedom of Information Act request if they have to, in order to find out more information about professional development. What is the professional development? What is actually achieved? What's measurable? Where are they going? How much money is spent?"
Because of the scandal, Chicago Public Schools at the end of last month announced a travel freeze on all non-approved trips.
Higgins believes so much more could have been accomplished for students if the school system had restricted extravagant, unapproved travel earlier.
“If that had been invested in some really substantive program, if they got rid of all their DEI stuff, if they got rid of all their pro-LGBTQ stuff and used all the $23.6 million and put that to some really good efforts, what could be done? But that won't be done by Democrats. That's the bottom line."
